In its position of natural homeostasis, the lower, or lumbar, region of the human spine is curved towards the front of the body (lordotic) when viewed from the side. When the lumbar region of the spine becomes curved away from this position of natural homeostasis, the resulting condition is generally termed lumbar lordosis, or hyperlordosis in cases of extreme curvature. One situation that may lead to departure from natural homeostasis in the lower back occurs when a person is required to maintain a relatively fixed lumbar position for a long period of time. For example, maintaining a seated, sloped, or supine position may force the lumbar region away from its natural lordotic curvature, leading to pain and/or limited movement.
There are numerous situations in which a person may be required to maintain a non-homeostatic lower back position. For example, patients recovering from surgery and/or undergoing medical procedures may have to remain in a supine position for a relatively long period of time, with little or no movement. Such medical procedures include cardiac catherization (angiogram), magnetic resonance imagery (MRI), echocardiogram (ECG), renal scanning, and various other imaging and/or testing procedures. In some cases, these procedures may require patients to lie completely still for 4–6 hours or more.
Additionally, women undergoing prolonged labor during childbirth, patients who have received external fixation to facilitate healing of broken bones, burn patients, victims being examined and/or transported after an accident, terminally ill patients, and permanently disabled patients, among others, may also be required to maintain a sloped or horizontal supine position for long periods of varying duration. During this time, patients may suffer considerable back pain, particularly in the lumbar region.
Perhaps even more commonly, a person sitting in a wheelchair, an office chair, an automobile seat, or an airplane seat may spend hours at a time in a relatively fixed position, with their lower back forced away from its natural lordotic curvature. Often, this leads to lumbar back pain and/or restricted range of movement. Prolonged maintenance of an anatomically incorrect posture while either supine or seated may lead to long-term misalignment of the spine, which often requires medical attention and which in some instances may not be easily reversible.
To ameliorate the back pain described above, drugs such as narcotic painkillers may be administered or taken. These drugs often are addictive, they typically decrease productivity in the workplace, and they may be unsafe when taken by a driver of a car or by an operator of machinery. Furthermore, narcotic painkillers may have numerous adverse medical side effects, including nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, itching, confusion, accelerated heart rate, and constipation, among others.
An alternative to administering drugs is to attempt to mechanically provide lower back support, for example by pushing conventional pillows, towels, and the like behind or beneath the lower back. However, this action may require undesirable movement on the part of the user, and can interfere with medical testing procedures in cases where the user is a clinical patient. Furthermore, such mechanical means may not be designed to support the lumbar spine in an anatomically correct position. Therefore, existing mechanical measures may not result in substantial added comfort for the user, and in some instances may even exacerbate a medical condition.
In light of the above considerations, a need exists for a noninvasive, convenient, and comfortable device for supporting the lumbar spine of a person in a seated, sloped, or supine position.